Although the game of Pai Gow poker, frequently referred to as Asian Poker and double hand poker, has been around for many years, it has not received widespread play in gambling establishments throughout the United States. As is well known in the art, the game is played with either tiles or with a standard deck of fifty-two playing cards with one joker added. In some versions of the game, a joker is utilized to represent only a limited number of cards such as an ace or as part of a straight or flush. Rankings in Pai Gow poker are substantially the same as rankings in other types of poker games.
Pai Gow poker is typically played in a casino at a table much like that used for Blackjack, casino table poker variants, Baccarat, or the like, except that there is typically one fewer player position. That is, there is a dealer position and six player positions equally spaced around a perimeter of the table. The game is limited to six player hands and a dealer hand, using forty-nine cards, leaving four remaining cards. At each player position, there are normally markings or indicia for setting the dealer's and players' high and low hands (explained hereinafter) and a spot for each player to place his or her ante or bet wager.
The game is typically started by each player placing a bet. The dealer then deals seven cards to himself or herself and seven cards to each of the six player positions, using forty-nine of the fifty-three cards in the playing card deck. Each player, including the dealer, then forms two hands from the holdings of seven cards. One hand, referred to as the “low hand,” consists of two of the dealt cards. The other hand, referred to as the “high hand,” consists of the remaining five cards that were dealt to that player. The high hand must be higher in poker rank than the low hand. If the hand is a Pai Gow (no ranked hands possible higher than an ace high), then the highest ranked card must be present in the high hand.
The only requirement in forming or setting the high and low hands is that the low hand must be of a lower rank than the high hand. The ranking of the hands is similar to traditional poker with the exception, as pointed out above, that the joker can be used to represent an ace or to represent any one card of either a straight or a flush. Thus, the highest possible hand is five aces.
If the player's low hand and high hand are both higher in rank than the low and high hand of the dealer or banker, the player is a winner and the banker loses. However, if both of the dealer's or banker's hands are higher than the player's, the player is a loser and the banker wins. If only one of either of the player's high or low hands tie or lose to the comparable dealer's hand, the round is considered a push. Under some house rules, the banker's hand is normally considered to be the winner in the event of a tie in both hands, or even one hand, although this latter rule is rarely used in play.
If the player's low hand is of a higher rank than the banker's low hand but the player's high hand is of a lower rank than the banker's high hand, neither wins and the round is considered to be a push. Similarly, a push exists when a player's low hand is of a lower rank than the banker's low hand and the player's high hand is of a higher rank than the banker's high hand. There is, therefore, no winner when a push exists.
In some casinos, the banker and the dealer are one and the same person employed by the casino. The dealer is employed by the casino and deals the cards but is also a player. More frequently, however, the players are given an option, in turn, to be the banker while each of the other players plays against the banker/player. (The banker is the dealer or player who is responsible for paying or collecting from each of the players.) When this is done, the house, that is, the establishment operating the game, takes a commission by way of a percentage on all winning wagers or is paid a flat commission per round or per hour.
The house also takes a commission or ante from each player when he or she wins. The commission may be about 1% of the wager, such as taking $0.25 from a $25.00 wager, $0.50 from a $25.00 to $50.00 wager, and $0.75 from a $51.00 to $75.00 wager. There are numerous ways in which the house can collect on a player-banked game.
There are a few known special bonuses that can be won at Pai Gow poker. In some locations, there may be bonuses for specially ranked hands, such as a pair of aces and a four-of-a-kind or higher, and a special bonus or jackpot for a pair of aces as the low hand and a straight flush or royal flush for the high hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,491,302 to Boylan et al. describes a method of playing a Pai Gow poker game in which, in addition to the usual seven cards dealt to each player and the dealer, a single player tiebreaker card is dealt for all players and a single dealer tiebreaker card is dealt to the dealer. The ante bet of each player is then paid off for winning and losing hands in the usual manner of a Pai Gow game. However, with push hands (where only one of the two-card hand and five-card hand of the player has a higher poker rank than the respective two-card hand and five-card hand of the dealer), the winner is determined by the higher value of the player and dealer tiebreaker cards so that no push bets occur.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,931,472 to Ko describes an improved game of Pai Gow, as set forth, which includes offering the player an optional bonus wager. Should the tiles of the player's hand match any predetermined bonus outcome tile combination, the player receives a reward for his or her bonus wager regardless of whether or not the player has won his or her hand according to the rules of Pai Gow.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,007,424 to Evers et al. describes a method, device, and system for playing a new game of Pai Gow poker. The method includes dealing seven cards to the dealer and to each player, the players and dealer each, from the seven cards dealt, assembling a five-card high hand and a two-card low hand. For the player to win his or her wager, both the player's high and low hands must outrank the dealer's hands according to the ranking of hands of poker. For a push the player's high hand must have a higher ranking the dealer's and must have a ranking of a pair of jacks or better. All other hands are losses. The method of the abovementioned U.S. Pat. No. 6,007,424 provides for greater payoffs if the player has one of a plurality of payoff qualifying holdings. The device includes a processor programmed to play the game according to the method. The system provides for linking devices to amass a progressive jackpot payout should a player obtain a qualifying hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,070,876 to Ko describes an improved game of Pai Gow that includes offering the player an optional bonus wager. Should the tiles of the player's hand match any predetermined bonus outcome tile combination, the player receives a reward for his or her bonus wager regardless of whether or not the player has won his or her hand according to the rules of Pai Gow. The game also provides an option to make a tie wager.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,113,103 to Mostashari teaches a variation of Pai Gow poker known as “Dragon” poker. A player posts a wager and is dealt a first four of seven cards face down. A bank is dealt a first four of seven cards, three of which are dealt face up. The player is then given an option of surrendering and receiving a return of a portion of the wager. With the surrender, the player's participation in the game is at an end. A player who does not surrender is a “surviving” player who may be given an option of increasing the wager. The surviving player and the bank are each dealt three additional cards to enable formation of a player back hand and a player front hand and formation of a bank back hand and a bank front hand. After the hands are formed, the wager is resolved.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,863,041 to Boylan et al. describes a method of playing a Pai Gow poker wagering game in which an ante bet is initially wagered and a bonus bet is also wagered by at least one player. Seven cards are then dealt to each player and the dealer and are arranged into a two-card low hand and a five-card high hand. The ante bet of each player is then paid off to in the usual manner for Pai Gow poker. Thereafter, a best five-out-of-seven-card poker hand is arranged by the dealer for each player from the seven cards initially dealt to the player, and the bonus bet is paid off if the best poker hand has a poker rank equal to or better than a first predetermined rank (e.g., a straight) but less than a second predetermined rank (e.g., a royal flush or five-of-a-kind in a wild card game). Next, the dealer determines whether the best poker hand of each player has a poker rank better than or equal to the second predetermined rank so that an auxiliary game of chance, such as rolling three dice, is then played to determine whether the bonus bet is paid off at a first payoff rate, when the player is a loser, or at a second payoff higher than the first payoff rate, when the player is a winner, in an auxiliary game. In addition, the dealer then determines whether each player has made a bonus bet of a predetermined minimum (exceeding the betting minimum), which is then paid off if any other player has a best poker hand equal to or better than a third predetermined rank (four-of-a-kind) in an event called an “envy” bet.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,270,078 to Leone et al. describes a version of the game of Pai Gow poker that allows a player to bet against the house and/or to bet against the other players. In addition to the conventional betting spot for placing an optional bet against the banker and/or other players, an additional betting spot is located in front of each of the players that allows the player to optionally bet against the house. This can be done whether or not the house is the banker. Thus, even if a fellow player has been designated as the banker, each other player can still choose to play against only the house. Each player can, of course, play against his or her fellow player/banker but is not required to do so. Each player can play against the house, against his or her fellow player/banker, against neither, or against both.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,486 to Franklin describes a method of playing a game of Pai Gow poker comprising: a player placing a first wager; a player placing a jackpot bet; and a dealer dealing seven cards to himself or herself and to the player. Each player arranges his or her cards into a low hand, including two of the seven cards, and a high hand, including five of the seven cards. Each player evaluates the cards and determines whether the cards comprise a predetermined jackpot card holding of a low hand pair and a high hand of one of (i) four aces and the joker, (ii) a royal flush, (iii) a straight flush, (iv) a four-of-a-kind, (v) a full house, (vi) a flush, or (vii) a straight. Players are paid a jackpot amount if the player has a jackpot holding. The winner of the first wager is determined by comparing a low hand of the dealer to the low hand of the player and a high hand of the dealer to the high hand of the player.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,580,061 to Kong describes a method of eliminating a push in a game of Pai Gow poker wherein a player and a banker are each dealt seven cards from a standard deck of fifty-two playing cards plus a joker, wherein the player and the banker each form a high hand and a low hand from the dealt cards. The method describes the steps of assigning a numerical value to each card; comparing a card in a player's hand to a corresponding card in a banker's hand; and designating a winner based upon whether or not the corresponding cards have total numerical values that are either both odd or both even.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,422,564 to Baranauskas describes a two-card poker game against a dealer in which a two-card dealer hand used in play is created from discarded cards from player hands. Players are initially dealt five cards each and are required to discard the highest card. The pool of discarded high cards is used to form the dealer's two-card poker hand. The game is played with a lower numerical ranking portion of a deck comprising the card ranks of two through eight of a typical fifty-two card poker deck. The game method includes the steps of each player placing an initial wager to participate in the game. If player positions are not occupied, the dealer retrieves the highest numerical ranking card from hands dealt to unoccupied positions and places those cards into the designated high card area in front of that unoccupied player position. Next, players decide which two cards of their remaining four cards they wish to hold and use to build their mandatory two-card hand. Players must place the two cards into an appropriate, depicted hold card area in front of that player position. Players must then discard the remaining two cards into an appropriate, depicted discard area in front of that player position. Each player then has the benefit of a two-card hand. The dealer chooses the house's two-card hand from the pool of high cards discarded by the players and placed in the designated area. The dealer indicates the choices by placing an indicator apparatus onto each of the two cards chosen. The dealer then informs the players of the house's two-card hand. Finally, all cards in each occupied player positions are shown, and the payouts to the winning hands and the collections of the losing hands wagers are resolved. The players play against the dealer and not against each other.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,481,719 to Webb and 6,012,719 also to Webb describe a card game that combines the play of blackjack (“21”) with a three-card poker wager or side bet (“21+3”). Each player places a basic blackjack wager and an optional three-card poker wager before the cards are dealt. Each player is then dealt a card with the dealer receiving a face-up card. Each player is then dealt a second card. At this point, the outcome of each three-card poker hand is determined, wherein a three-card poker hand consists of the two-card hand dealt to that player and the dealer's face-up card. After settling the poker wagers, the game of blackjack continues in a typical fashion. The inventions advantageously retain all the features and advantages of blackjack as well as provide an additional opportunity to wager on a hand of three-card poker, without interfering with the card dealing sequence, for enhanced player anticipation and enjoyment.
Another known modification of the Pai Gow poker game has been played at “Harvey's Resort and Casino” in Stateline, Nev., near Lake Tahoe. In this modified game, a bonus bet is made (in addition to the ante bet in the usual game for the five-card hand and two-card hand ranks to be compared with those of the dealer). This bonus bet is won at odds if the player has any five cards (best five-card poker hand of the seven cards dealt), which together rank above a straight (with the odds increasing for increasingly ranked hands). In addition, if a player makes a bonus bet above $5 (5× the minimum), that player can additionally win a predetermined payoff if any other player has any best five-card hand that forms a poker rank above four-of-a-kind (with the payoff increasing for increasingly ranked hands). This type of payout is referred to in the industry as an “envy bonus.” Envy bonuses are typically won on another player's hand, not on one's own hand.
Although Pai Gow poker has achieved a level of success such that it is present in most card rooms, it is desirable to provide additional features to the game that can make it even more attractive and successful.